The Divine Way of Making Chocolate (OkayAfrica)

Photo: Meghan LaPrairie Photography, courtesy of Divine Chocolate.

Last month, I attended a chocolate, cheese, and wine tasting in celebration of another year of Divine Chocolate's growth as a company, both in the United States and globally. (I know, my job is so hard, right?)

Not many cocoa farmers have tasted the fruit of their labor. Despite the rising demand for chocolate and rising cocoa prices, the majority of farmers growing the crop are poor. Divine Chocolate is a fairtrade chocolate company that is co-owned by the 85,000 farmer members of Kuapa Kokoo, the cooperative in Ghana.

Check my article about Divine's business model in Ayiba Magazine's Formation Issue. It features some amazing suggestions for chocolate and cheese pairings.

Kenyan Start-Up ‘Enda’ Aims to Make the First Made-In-Kenya Running Shoe (OkayAfrica)

My latest for Okayafrica takes a look at the story behind Enda, a new start-up hoping to make the first made-in-Kenya running shoe. Check it out on the Okayafrica website or below. 

For decades, Kenya has been East Africa’s (and the continent’s) anchor when it comes to running. Did you know Kenyans hold world records in virtually every category of mid- and long-distance running? The country takes 17 of the top 25 male record holders for the 3000-meter steeplechase, and eight of the top 10 fastest male marathoners and four of 10 female marathoners are Kenyan too.

Since Wilson Kiprugut won bronze in the 800m in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kenya’s abundance of talent has translated into a gold mine—for a few. Earlier this year, ascandal rocked the country as Kenyan athletics officials pocketed money intended to train poor athletes. While a handful of Kenya’s most famous runners earn lucrative sponsorships and coveted prize money, the vast majority of Kenyan runners remain impoverished.

Navalayo Osembo-Ombati and Weldon Kennedy are two social entrepreneurs who want Kenya to benefit more from its famous running reputation. Their new start-up, Enda—meaning “go” in Kiswahili—aims to make the first high-performance made-in-Kenya running shoe. Since launching a crowdfunding campaign less than a month ago, Osembo-Ombati and Kennedy raised $100,000, which will help Enda kickstart production later this year.

Growing up in a village near Eldoret, located in Kenya’s North Rift region and home to the country’s running champions, Osembo-Ombati dreamt for years of ways of leveraging Kenyan sports to better support local development. After meeting Kennedy at an entrepreneurial workshop, the idea for Enda was born.

To break into the $17 billion athletic shoe market, Enda hopes to take advantage of preferential tariff rates for importing footwear and apparel to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (better known as AGOA), a trade deal between the U.S. and 40 African countries renewed last year for a decade. Under AGOA, Enda’s shoes will be exempt from import taxes.

The company’s debut shoe, the Enda Iten, is a lightweight, neutral training shoe named after a small, nondescript town that is increasingly gaining a reputation as the world’s foremost producer of elite running talent.

To develop the Iten, the Enda team partnered with Birdhaus, a design studio that has worked with Under Armour, Reebok, and Keen. For Osembo-Ombati, comfort comes first. “People have different running styles and gaits, so we developed a shoe that would be universally appealing. It has a wider toe-box, so the feet aren’t squeezed together and features just the right amount of cushion for trail running.”

The shoe’s design features nods to Kenya’s heritage. The Iten’s three colors—green, red and black—and the spear logo nod to Kenya’s flag while its heel mimics the shape of the Rift Valley hills. Twelve lines appear on the lateral side of the Enda Iten to recognize Kenyan Independence Day, December 12.  On the sole, the word Harambee—Kiswahili for “all pull together”—celebrates the community-focused drive at the heart of Enda.

But making the shoes in Kenya isn’t easy.  “We want to champion national pride by proclaiming that Enda products are fully Kenyan-made. The material we’re using for our mid-sole is just not available locally,” Osembo-Ombati says.

In the long term, Osembo-Ombati and Kennedy plan to source all components of Enda shoes in Kenya, but in the meantime, they plan to assemble and package shoes in Kenya, and increase local sourcing as they go along.

“We’re hoping that through economies of scale and building a global market for our shoes, it’ll provide an incentive for factories in Kenya to increase local availability of materials,” Osembo-Ombati says.

For Enda, social enterprise isn’t just a catch-phrase—it’s a commitment. Founded as a benefit corporation, the company is legally obligated to make reports on activities contributing to its social mission, and is held accountable by stakeholders. Enda plans to set aside a portion of profits to fund community development projects. In the future, anyone who buys a pair of Enda shoes will be able vote to determine which projects benefit from their purchase.

According to Osembo-Ombati, “Having a social impact extends not only to the people we hire, but to the communities we touch.”

‘Arts of the Monsoon’ Is a Striking Documentary Exploring the Cultural Connections Between Oman and Zanzibar (OkayAfrica)

I recently had the opportunity to attend an advanced screening of new documentary, Arts of the Monsoon, a documentary commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. I gave Okayafrica sneak peek of the film. Hop on over to their website to take a look or view the full text of the article below.

When you arrive on the Swahili coast, it feels like a different world from the savanna landscapes or the booming cities of Nairobi or Dar es Salaam that dominate East Africa’s travel guidebooks. The acacia-dotted savannas are replaced by palm trees and mangoes. Instead of the experimental, futuristic design of postcolonial cities, visitors find heavy wooden teak doors and windows dating back centuries.

Omani visual artist Madny Al Bakry in Arts of the Monsoon. Photo still courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art

Arts of the Monsoon, a new documentary film commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, takes viewers into the traditions of this unique corner of the world by exploring the connections between Zanzibar and Oman through the eyes of musicians, artists, and cultural experts.

At first glance, I’m intrigued by the film, which explores an area that is foreign yet familiar. I spent idyllic childhood summers in Mombasa, watching the dhows(fishing boats) cut through the sparkling waters of the Indian Ocean, wandering its labyrinthine streets, the smell of fresh coconut-infused pilau with its rich medley of cardamom, turmeric, and cloves wafted through the air. Today, separatist and terror activity has left the city a shell of its former self. The same story plagues Lamu, one of Kenya’s oldest town and one of the first Swahili settlements. Despite occasional bouts of violence, Zanzibar remains the last true gem of the Swahili coast.

While the stories of Portuguese and British colonialism are by now familiar and well recorded, the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the Omani colonial commercial empire that controlled the maritime Silk Road from the 17th to 19th centuries, is less commonly explored in the history books. Separated from its Gulf neighbors by the vast expanses of desert and maritime borders, Oman took to the seas and forged connections more with East Africa than with its Arab neighbors. Over hundreds of years, trade between the isolated Gulf state and East Africa produced a distinctive cultural fusion that still exists today.

Arts of the Monsoon is connected to a larger exhibition at the National Museum of African Art funded by a $1.8 million gift from the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., an educational institution seeking to promote cross-cultural dialogue between Oman and the United States. Launched in 2013, the multi-year education program, “Connecting the Gems of the Indian Ocean: From Oman to East Africa,” highlights the evolution of Omani arts and cultures, the beauty of the arts in Oman and its connections to the East African Coast.

In a scene recorded in the port city Sur, filmmaker Dodge Billingsley shows Omani dancers in long, flowing white robes beating drums then transports viewers back across the ocean to heartaarab, traditional Zanzibari music that combines Arab scales with African rhythms. Elsewhere, we find other juxtapositions—the Swahili kanga, a traditional cloth worn by women on the streets of Zanzibar’s Stone Town and Oman’s Salalah, and the clove carvings on doors of Stone Town, Muscat and Mizanfah recalling the region’s long history of spice trade.

“When you say Africa and Oman, they are like twins,” professes one artisan in the film, as he leads viewers through the maze-like markets of Muscat. Indeed, throughout the film we meet Zanzibar-born Omanis who switch between Arabic, Swahili, and English effortlessly—fluent in both the language and rituals of Oman and the coast. The word “Swahili” itself even comes from sawahil in Arabic, meaning “coast.”

In the Western world, media and academia often focus on West Africa and its postcolonial history, neglecting the rich history of the great empires of Mali and Songhai—or the rich and complex cultural exchanges of the Indian Ocean world. Arts of the Monsoon dispels the narrative of a “dark continent”—re-shaping our understanding of the continent and its centuries-long influences throughout Asia and the Middle East.

Join the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art for the public premiere of ‘Arts of the Monsoon’ on Saturday, June 11, at 2:00 p.m. with a Q&A session with executive producer, Nicole D. Shivers, to follow. Register for free here.

This New Surfboard Company Wants More Women to Hang 10 on Senegal’s Famous Shores (OkayAfrica)

As I researched Côte d’Ivoire's West Factory, I became increasingly intrigued in West Africa's surf culture. I take that curiosity about surfing to Senegal, home to West Africa's best waves, to speak to Walid Moukadem, owner of the newly launched MCXNboards, and Khadijou Sambe, one of Senegal’s first and only female surfers. Check out the story here and find the full article below:

“Surfers in Senegal are one big extended family,” Khadijou Sambe, one of Senegal’s first and only female surfers, says. In the conservative, predominantly Muslim country, Sambe is an anomaly in a sport on Dakar’s beaches.

Since the premiere of the 1960s surf cult classic, Endless Summer, Senegal’s swells attracted a growing number of surfers. Similar to other growing surf hotspots like Côte d’Ivoire, expatriates and tourists dominate Senegal’s surf community. In recent years, however, more locals are hitting the waves. Now, Sambe and Walid Moukadem, owner of the newly launchedMCXNboards, are partnering to change the face of Senegalese surf through an inclusive, homegrown model.

While Senegalese women may watch surfers from the shore, they rarely take to the water themselves because of cultural taboos. Sambe grew up in Lebou, a fishing village in N’Gor, a tiny island made famous through Endless Summer. She started surfing after she met surf instructor Pape Sambe Ndiaye.

“When I told him that I wanted to learn to surf, he looked at me a bit strangely and asked if my family knew what I was doing,” Sambe says to Okayafrica. “He asked me to have my parents fill out a registration form and told me I could start to learn as soon as they signed the completed form. I knew that my family would disapprove—they didn’t think that surfing was for girls—so I took the form home and filled it out myself.”

Ndiaye offered free lessons to Sambe and some other local teenagers, but the girls in the small class were soon forced to give up surfing due to familial pressure. Sambe managed to fly under her own family’s radar for years by sneaking out of her window to go to the beach—until she got caught.

After giving up surfing briefly in 2013 to keep the peace at home, she decided to return to the water and joined the team at Malika Surf Camp, one of Senegal’s top surf schools, first as the manager of the surfboard rental shop and now as an instructor.

At Malika, Sambe met Moukadem, a Lebanese-Senegalese businessman-turned-entrepreneur. Moukadem began surfing at 2014 at the encouragement of his wife, Katie, and immediately fell in love with the sport, but plateaued in development without access to better boards

“When you a surf with a board that is adapted to your size, level and local surf conditions, you can progress much faster,” he says. “Unfortunately, there weren’t any shapers in Dakar at that time. So, I had to buy an imported board. I’ve seen many other people who end up using or buying boards that are not well-suited for them, and they often become frustrated that they don’t progress in their surfing. Having the right board can make all the difference.”

At first, Moukadem only repaired his own boards, but eventually learned to shape boards himself—even painting designs on them. In 2015, he trained with Alvaro Fernandez, founder ofRodiRide boards, to further develop his skills. After his training, he came back to Senegal, turned his garage into a fully equipped professional shaping room, and launched MCXNboards only a few months later.

MCXN produces Senegal’s only locally-made foam/polyester/epoxy boards. While some local Senegalese surfers have experimented with locally-made wooden boards, they generally have limited performance in the water. They all are custom-made, and take into account the person’s weight, height, surfing level, fitness level, and surfing environment. According to Moukadem, “It’s kind of like having a suit or dress custom-made by a tailor rather than buying a readymade suit or dress. The final product is a board that is tailor made for your individual needs and preferences.”

The brand’s name stands for Mouk’s Connection. The name derives from Moukadem’s surname and stands for the owner’s goal of celebrating Senegal’s vibrant and diverse surf community. Through MCXNboards, Moukadem hopes to grow Senegal’s surf culture on the international stage, and build more connections between surfers across West Africa.

Moukadem hopes these surfers won’t be limited to men. Sambe, Moukadem’s former surf instructor turned close friend, serves as MCXN’s brand ambassador in an effort to promote the company’s social development mission. Through working with Sambe, MCXN hopes to develop strategies to tackle gender inequality and to encourage other young women to pursue their passions.

“Before MCXNboards started-up, I had never owned my own surfboard,” Sambe says. “Having my own board has helped me to find the courage to keep doing what I love. I hope that, in the future, more Senegalese women will surf.”

MCXN also has plans to expand its social mission to include projects focused on protecting the sea and supporting local artisans. Tapping into Dakar’s vibrant urban arts scene, Moukadem is in talks with local graffiti collectives to produce joint artwork for their boards. Through creating more avenues for artistic expression, he hopes that MCXN can positively contribute to Senegal’s social and economic development.

“Surfing has an amazing ability to bring people together, to empower people to reach their potential and to bring people closer to nature,” Moukadem says. “I truly believe that a home-grown surf culture has the potential to contribute to wider social and economic development in Senegal.”

This New Ivorian Surf Shop Is Putting Côte d’Ivoire On To Surf Culture (OkayAfrica)

My latest for Okayafrica goes behind the scenes of new Ivoirian surf workshop, The West Factory. Check out the original post here or find it below.

The world’s surfing population is growing fast. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of surfers increased from 26 million to 35 million. Serious surfers seek the right amount of wind and wave, and uncrowded beaches. Africa, with over 26,000 kilometers of coastline, can help meet that demand.

Some of the continent’s best surf spots in North and Southern Africa are well known to surf lovers worldwide, but the waves in West Africa are still underexplored.

“Everywhere you go in the world, you hear about the Californian, Hawaiian, or Australian surf cultures—you never really hear about the Asian or African surf cultures,” Hadi Beydoun, founder of The West Factory, says.

Beydoun opened The West Factory, a new surf workshop in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, which serves as a work space for shapers and a local center for the Ivorian surfing community this April.

He grew up in Abidjan before decamping to Lebanon following a coup d’état in Côte d’Ivoire. After moving to Australia for university, he developed a passion for surfing. “As soon as I got to Australia, I had wanted to learn how to surf because it’s such a big part of the culture,” he says. “I went to different surf camps and shops to learn more about the sport. When I first got into it, I loved the sport so much that I immediately thought: ‘I need to bring this to Côte d’Ivoire.’”

Located on the Gulf of Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire has 515 kilometers of southerly facing shoreline. Azure waves from the South Atlantic break along the country’s white sand beaches, nestled between coconut trees and pineapple plantations. Beydoun counts Assinie, the country’s most popular beach, and San-Pédro, as his favorite go-to places to catch a good wave. Despite the country’s natural beauty, the surfing culture is still young. “It’s a small community made up mainly of Lebanese and French,” he says. “There aren’t that many Ivorian surfers yet, but they’re growing in number as more people get interested in the sport. At the moment, it’s primarily men, but at different surf camps and events, I’ve started to see more female surfers.”

Before moving back to Côte d’Ivoire in 2015, Beydoun visited Lebanon where he met Paul Abbas, a self-taught shaper. When Abbas began surfing, there were no boards in Lebanon—so he decided to make his own. Today, Abbas is the only person in Lebanon building surfboards from scratch on a large-scale. Beydoun approached Abbas about collaborating to build boards in Côte d’Ivoire. Although Abbas was initially hesitant, he quickly came around in the face of Beydoun’s passion and persistence. As the workshop launches this month, Abbas came to Abidjan for a month to help shape custom boards and train locals in the art of the surfboard.

“None of the boards in Côte d’Ivoire are made here—everything is imported. I decided to open a factory, a small workshop, to produce high-quality local boards made by local people at a lower price point,” Beydoun tells Okayafrica. If the demand keeps growing, The West Factory plans to recruit different shapers from across the world to make boards and teach a local team. Beydoun hopes that one day, The West Factory and its Ivorian staff will be able to shape their own boards. Currently, there are three different models available in every shape and color imaginable. Surfers can peruse The West Factory’s catalogue and opt for ready-made or custom-built boards.

As post-civil war Côte d’Ivoire begins to flourish again, greater domestic and international interest in surfing can help drive the country’s flagging tourism industry. As Beydoun builds the business, he hopes that The West Factory can help expand knowledge and support for surfing in West Africa, and change the image of surfing as a luxury Western sport.

“As we create an African surf and beach culture,” Beydoun says, “I want people to make their own boards and become independent of California, Australia and Europe, and I want to do it at a lower price.”

This London Supper Club Wants You To Come And Chop Delicious Nigerian Delicacies (OkayAfrica)

The foodie in me couldn't help reaching out to Tokunbo Koiki, the mumpreneur behind Tokunbo's Kitchen and Tee's Food Corner to talk Nigerian food and the London pop-up scene. You can read the original article over at Okayafrica or read below.

Tokunbo Koiki, a self-described British-Nigerian mumpreneur, hopes to convince Londoners to trade in their fish and chips for suya and yam. Forget the tartar sauce, where’s the pepper sauce?

As the world’s undisputed culinary capital, London’s restaurant scene features anything from your standard Indian fare to less well-known cuisines like Burmese or Czech food. Yet despite the city’s nearly 16,000 restaurants, African restaurants make up less than 1 percent of the vibrant food culture. Through her new supper club, Tokunbo’s Kitchen, will introduce Londoners to the colorful flavors of Nigeria.

The club builds on Tee’s Food Corner, a pop-up Nigerian street food stall that served as Koiki’s first venture in the culinary world. The enthusiastic response inspired Koiki to expand her growing business. “Tokunbo’s Kitchen is an intimate social dining experience, whereas Tee’s Food Corner is more tailored towards simple finger food,” she tells Okayafrica.

Tokunbo's Nigerian-style fried rice. 

Koiki began cooking at age twelve, starting off with fried egg and plantain and expanding to more complex recipes such as pounded yam and okra stew. Today, the latter remains her signature dish, along with Nigerian-style fried rice.

A recent addition to her list of favorite dishes is egusi stew, made with protein-rich egusi (melon) seeds. “Growing up, I didn’t eat it much, but a couple of years ago, I came across a recipe and decided to give it a try,” she says. “I realized I had been truly missing out all those years after I cooked egusi and okra stew on the same day, and I didn’t even eat the okra because I was so focused on how the delicious complex flavors of the egusi were!”

The vegan-friendly dish features on the menu of her inaugural supper club on April 23. Other menu items include oxtail, goat and tripe pepper soup, yaji spiced butternut squash soup, and efo riro, a vegetable stew. Her second dinner later this year will be centered on seafood dishes.
 

Koiki decided to pursue the supper club route instead of a restaurant in an effort to diversify beyond an African audience.

“There’s about 1 million Nigerians in London alone, but if you ask the average Londoner about Nigerian food, they don’t even know what it is. I didn’t want to just open a restaurant for Nigerians and other Africans,” she says. “I want to introduce Nigerian food on a gradual basis to a global audience. Whether it’s London or Barcelona, I can travel the world introducing people to the colorful flavors of Nigerian food.”

As a social dining experience, guests will share a table with other like-minded foodies over delicious plates they would find in any Nigerian home—with Koiki’s creative touch. Tokunbo’s Kitchen focuses on the ingredient-driven food similar to what chefs like Anthony Bourdain now worship—dependably delicious, but not necessarily expensive or stuffy.

With an adaptable menu and location, Koiki believes the versatility of Tokunbo’s Kitchen is its greatest advantage. During future supper clubs, she hopes to host art exhibitions and provide musical entertainment to not only give guests a taste of Nigerian food, but also the Naija way of life.